Despite about $1.6 billion invested by the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari on the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail Line, container haulage by rail in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is still struggling.
BusinessDay’s recent visit to the Apapa Port revealed that container haulage by rail is still very skeletal as the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) only comes to the port every two days to lift about 36 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of container from Apapa to Ebute-Metta on the old narrow gauge rail track.
The containers presently end up in Ebute-Metta for onward lifting by truck because the narrow-gauge track has issues along the Ibadan axis as the past government technically neglected the narrow gauge and focused only on the standard gauge line.
Also, it was discovered that the port-side construction works on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail Line, inaugurated two years ago, are not yet completed following the controversies surrounding the removal of the building housing the fixed scanners that belong to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Our reporter also discovered that only one out of the three tracks of the new Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail Line that are supposed to get to the port has been completed while the remaining two tracks that would complete the construction of the rail line, are still left on attended to.
As it stands, there are two types of rail lines that go into the Apapa Port. They are the narrow and standard gauges. The standard gauge rail is supposed to have three tracks but only one track is completed while the other two tracks are still not completed due to the scanning building. The issue with the Apapa fixed scanning building has remained unresolved over the ongoing inter-agency discussions.
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For instance, the Federal Ministry of Transportation believed that the Nigeria Customs building must go for the rail line to be connected, but for the Federal Ministry of Finance, and the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment; it is a sensitive building that is purposely built and has a fixed scanner with radioactive materials.
Therefore, there is a need for decommissioning for the radio materials not to go into the environment.
On the narrow gauge, the NRC handles about a trip every two days that lifts about 36 TEUs and the containers are moved to Ebute-Metta for onward truck lifting to their various destination.
This reporter also discovered that APM Terminals Apapa has significantly enhanced operations at the rail site and has deployed RTG cranes in place of reach stackers for loading and offloading containers on the coaches. Using a crane to load the rail coaches enhances the efficiency and turnaround time of the rail.
Augustine Arase, the Lagos district manager of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) told BusinessDay on the phone recently, that every discussion concerning container haulage on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge has been put on hold due to the political transition of power from the past government to the new government.
According to him, container haulage via rail on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Railway has not started but the NRC is positive that it will commence operations soon.
“We are hopeful that when the new government settles, discussions on the interest earlier expressed by the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) to begin container haulage by rail on the newly constructed Lagos-Ibadan Standard Railway will continue,” he explained.
He however said that the Corporation is still moving containers skeletally via the old narrow-gauge track.
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